Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Monkeyshines

Monkeyshines. Now there's a word with an origin I can't even begin to guess. Time to hit the wondrous world of the internet!

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
According to the online Merriam-Webster, monkeyshine (which is usually used in the plural) means mischievous or playful activity. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives it an origin date of 1832, adding: 

from monkey (n.) + shine (n.) "a caper, trick" (1835), from an American English slang sense perhaps related to the expression cut a shine "make a fine impression" (1819).... For sense of the whole word, compare Old French singerie "disreputable behavior," from singe "monkey, ape."

 The Word Detective also addresses monkeyshines, in a fascinating (and more lengthy) dive with asides about other monkey-themed phrases:

“Monkeyshine,” a US coinage dating back to the early 19th century meaning a prank, trick or just boisterous behavior, is one of several English words and phrases that draw parallels, usually not very negative, between human and playful simian behavior. “Monkey business,” “monkey around,” “more fun than a barrel of monkeys,” “monkey see, monkey do,” etc., all make being a monkey sound like a lot more fun than it probably is. “Monkeyshines” may land you on probation at college or even cost you your job, but you’re unlikely to land in the slammer by monkeying around (unless “monkeyshines” is used, as it sometimes is, in a sarcastic sense to mean serious ethical or legal violations). 

The “shine” in “monkeyshine” is a colloquial term, also dating back to the early 19th century, with a number of meanings. “Shine” in this sense can mean “a party” (as in “tea-shine”), “a ruckus or commotion,” “a fancy for” (as in “take a shine to”), or simply “a trick or caper” (“‘I’ll boun you pulled ’em out, some o’ your shines,’ said Aunt Chloe,” Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852). The origins of this “shine” are uncertain. It may be simply a specialized use of “shine” in the sense of “radiance.” But it may also be related to the dialectical terms “shindy” and “shinty,” both used to mean “commotion,” and both related to “shinny,” a game similar to field hockey dating back to the 17th century.

Wow... field hockey?? Now there's a connection to monkeyshines that would have never occurred to me. And if you read this little conversation over on The Phrase Finder, there may even be a connection to moonshine, as in illicit liquor. 

Definitely a word with a lot of history and a bit of mystery in its origins...

College monkeyshines, before monkeyshines was a word
By Template:Thomas Rowlandson - This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92707011